Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday described Israel’s deadly strike on Haret Hreik as “a strike on initiatives, pacification efforts and understandings.”

“We will continue to work to rescue our country and protect our society from any danger,” Mikati added, during an emergency cabinet session tackling the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs and its repercussions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding the “threat” posed by Hezbollah, the Pentagon said, hours after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander Fouad Shukur in a rare strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“They discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” the readout said without referring to the strike on Shukur and the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an operation also blamed on Israel.

Anger simmered after Israel struck a southern Beirut suburb that is also a Hezbollah stronghold, with young men chanting in support of the group at the site of the strike.

Israel hit Hezbollah's stronghold in retaliation for rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 children over the weekend in the occupied Golan Heights, saying it had targeted the commander responsible for the attack.

Hezbollah condemned Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday, warning his death will only increase the resolve of Iran-backed "resistance" groups.

Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in the Iranian capital, where he was attending the swearing-in of the country's new president, and vowed the act "will not go unanswered".

The Hezbollah commander who the Israeli military says it killed in an airstrike Tuesday had been blamed by Israel for a deadly weekend rocket attack and was accused by the U.S. of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.

A statement from Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the target of the strike, Fouad Shukur, was behind the Saturday rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of Syria.

Hezbollah said Wednesday they were still searching for the body of a top commander targeted in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

The group’s first comment after the strike targeting Fouad Shukur came hours after his death Tuesday and followed the overnight strike in Tehran that killed Haniyeh.

The Israeli military said late Tuesday that it wanted to avoid any wider war with Hezbollah but that its forces were ready for "any scenario."

"Hezbollah's ongoing aggression and brutal attacks are dragging the people of Lebanon and the entire Middle East into a wider escalation," military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic election nominee, said Tuesday that Israel had a "right to defend itself" following a strike in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Harris -- who last week struck a tough tone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's war on Gaza -- also called for a diplomatic solution to reduce the risk of all-out conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border.

U.N. Special Coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Tuesday said she is "deeply concerned" after Israel's strike in "the densely populated southern suburb of Beirut which resulted in multiple civilian casualties."

"The Special Coordinator underscores once again that there is no such thing as a military solution and calls on both Israel and Lebanon to avail of all diplomatic avenues to pursue a return to the cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006)," a statement issued by her office said.

Iran condemned Tuesday what it called a "vicious" Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs which Israel said targeted a Hezbollah commander behind last week's rocket strike on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.